Tonigh I watched Dale, the Movie. It's a documentary about Dale Earnhardt's quest to win the Daytona 500 and his death at the very same race. Dale's triumphant race in 1998 and death in 2001 combined to put NASCAR where it is today.

The movie doesn't quite explain the details that made these races great. Here's some details that weren't made obvious in the movie. Darrel Waltrip, the long-time rival of Earnhardt's and one of the greatest NASCAR drivers ever, was announcing his first NASCAR race. He's the guy who says "Boogidy, boogidy, boogidy, let's go racing boys" on TV at the start of many of the NASCAR races. Darrel's brother Michael was driving one of Earnhardt's cars along with Dale's son, Dale Jr. Earnhardt was blocking the entire field in 3rd place with his two cars (Michael and Jr.) in 1st and 2nd, when his overly aggressive blocking sent him into the wall and his death. Darrel, the announcer, was in tears as he watched his brother win. That was also Michael's 1st win. Michael has since won a 2nd Daytona 500 and two other plate races (Daytona Pepsi 400 and Talladega). He has never won a non-plate race. After spending his entire life trying to win the big race, Dale Earnhardt Inc. (his company) won 3 out of the 4 races following his death; Michael Waltrip in 2001 and 2003 and Dale Jr. in 2004. In 2007, Kevin Harvick, who took over Dale Sr's car, also won the Daytona 500, giving Dale and his cars 5 wins in 10 races.

The documentary itself was still awesome. When I chose this movie last night, the kids asked "Is this one of those boring documentaries?" I told them that if it was too boring that we'd put another movie on. We watched the entire movie. My wife even joined us for the death scene, which we rewinded over and over.

Next week, we'll park the RV in the middle of the same very track. Our spot is about 100 feet from the spot where Dale's car came to rest on the grass. We'll be watching this movie in the RV line of sight from where it all actually happened.